1. Field of Invention
The invention falls within the class of batteries, miscellaneous.
2. Prior Art
Acheson No. 375,243 discloses a thermo-electric generator wherein two spaced electrodes are disposed in a liquid and one electrode is directly heated, and the liquid is caused to flow so as to avoid accumulation of gases at the electrode surfaces. Free electrons in the metal of the heated electrode cause current to flow in an external circuit. However, unlike in the subject invention wherein free electrons are caused to flow from the liquid into one electrode more than the other, Acheson, by directly heating one electrode, causes free electrons to flow out of the heated electrode into the liquid and thus inhibit rather than enhance establishment of a current in the external circuit.
Case No. 344,345 discloses the heating of two spaced electrodes disposed in a liquid which, when heated, reacts chemically with one of the electrodes. The use of heat to promote chemical reaction is distinguished from the use of heat merely to impart energy to the free electrons in a conductive liquid, as is here involved.
Gilbert U.S. Pat. No. 1,379,909 discloses the heating of a bar, one end of which is drawn through a die. This results in a thermoelectric junction which produces measurable current in an external circuit. In contrast, the subject method does not utilize a junction.
The collection of electric current from an energized electrically conductive liquid in the absence of essential electrochemical change and in the absence of a thermoelectric junction was well-established by Lord Kelvin. Metal plates immersed in flowing sea water were used to create a magneto-hydrodynamic generator. Unlike the present subject invention, however, the metal plates were symmetrically perpendicular to the direction of flow and were carefully placed with respect to a magnetic field which differentially deflected electrons from the flowing stream.
By contrast, the subject invention eliminates the need for and does not employ a magnetic field. Further, among other differences, when the stream is flowing in this invention, the electrodes are assymmetrically oriented with respect to the source of energy.
Even though the metal plates immersed in salty sea water would appear to make a chemical "sea battery," Lord Kelvin's device was not a chemical battery. Lord Kelvin observed that such variables as placement of the magnetic field and the direction of water flow affected the current output of his device. Such variables do not affect battery operation.
Likewise, the electricity generated by the present subject invention is not due to electrochemical change and, as in Lord Kelvin's device, the variables which determine current output in the present subject invention do not determine current output in chemical batteries. Such factors as direction of flow of the electrically conductive liquid and orientation of the electrodes in the manner described do not determine the output of chemical batteries.
Scientific America, Apr. 23, 1910, p. 334, discloses a current generating device wherein electrodes are disposed on opposite sides of porous barrier which separates ions in liquid flowing through the barrier and, hence, a constant net free electron concentration is not maintained in the liquid.
"Geomagnetism" by Chapman and Bartels, Oxford University Press, 1946, pp. 445-448, and "Magnetohydronamic Power Generation, A Status Report, Electronics & Power", August, 1964 disclose spaced electrodes disposed in water which flows through the earth's magnetic field so as to induce an electrical current. The flowing sea water is the source of energy, but the ability of one electrode to respond to free electrons more than the other depends upon the magnetic field of the earth.